@COE Typically if the permissions on the /images directory get messed up you can reinstall FOG and it will fix the permissions.

If you run the chmod 777 /images that will make the directory world writable but not the existing files / folders under that directory. If you use chmod -R 777 /images it will change everything under that directory to world writable.

But before you do that, the linux user fogproject should have read write access to /images. The password for that user is found in the hidden file /opt/fog/.fogsettings That is the user account fog uses to move files around while imaging.

@kentasmith Try changing your DHCP option 67 to another one of the boot files available (link below). We had this error and this resolved it. Think changing it to ipxe.kpxe instead of undionly.kpxe helped.

https://docs.fogproject.org/en/latest/installation/network-setup/dhcp-server-settings/#option-67

Hey @george1421 , Thanks for the quick reply, sorry for the missing details.

What device is your dhcp server? (manufacturer and version)

DHCP (and DNS) is running on an Active Directory 10.0.20348.1668, Windows Server 2022 Standard

Is it on the same subnet as the FOG server? You mentioned the VM and FOG server was on the same subnet.

This applies to any machine I’ve tried to deploy to from fog, for example fog is on subnet 100, unless the target of the deploy is specifically on subnet 101 it will fail to boot into the PXE server. Even with a Workstation/VM on subnet 100 (exactly the same subnet as the fog server) it will without fail time out this will happen on any subnet other than 101. In our case VLANs will correspond to Subnets.

Any machine on the 101 subnet can pxe boot to fog to capture and deploy with no issue with both UEFI and BIOS.

What hypervisor are you using?

We have found that we will see this issue whether on a VM or a Workstation so this isn’t limited to the hypervisor in question.

I assume when you say “run PXE” you are saying you are trying to pxe boot the VM?

Yes, correct.

Is the VM in bios or uefi mode?

We have tried both with the same result for either.

What specifically do you have defined for dhcp option 66 and 67?

For the two DHCP Policies we have in place for fog we have the following options set for 66d and 67:

FOG snponly.efi policy
66: 10.2.100.103 (IP address of our fog server)
67: snponly.efi

FOG ipxe.efi
66: 10.2.100.103 (IP address of our fog server)
67: ipxe.efi

@luilly23 thanks for the reply. It was a working script before and I had updated it to comment areas and operations recently and added regions within the powershell script. There were no reboot options that I can remember (fairly sure) inline in the script but will double check.

There was a reboot option on the snapin itself.

Is there any log of the fog client to server comms that could say “this caused the reboot” or just more detail. I was thinking of turning the reboot off of the snapin properties to see if it would progress.

@george1421 result!!!

i bought a HP NIC as i have a HP laptop and it works

this one if anyone is inteerested

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-N7P47AA-Network-DesignJet-Adapters-Black/dp/B01618WGMY?th=1

as literally star tech, ugreen, tp link, realtek or asix chipsets didnt work

@george1421 I have run all test and first, there were a firewall rule that were blocking TFTP from the FOG server then after running more test, I realised that it’s not link to hardware or sofware on the server.
During test, I just changed the port on the switch next the computer to keep most of the hardware between server and client.
On same vlan I run at 450 Mbits/s (around 50 mo/s) and when I change vlan, I run at 150 Mb/s only.
And under 20 mo/s max with Windows TFTP client so I give up using it to run more tests.
Colleagues says there is not QOS but there is definitly something reducing the speed.

a06abb6b-6197-402f-ba10-c8be4fddc41a-image.png

This can sometimes happen after you have sysprepped an machine and missed the boot menu prompt, entering the Out-of-box-experience. Trying to shutdown the device will leave the dirty bit resulting in the unclean error.

To avoid having to sysprep again, allow the device to enter OOBE again and hit shift+F10 and enter “oobe\bypassnro” at the resulting command prompt. Once you hit enter, the system will perform a clean reboot, clearing the dirty bit and allowing Fog to capture the filesystem correctly.

Hopes this helps someone else as some Dell machines are notorious for failing to get an IP from IPV4 PXE boot.

@Tom-Elliott
I could send you any log-info you guide me.
Too bad no one could help this problem.
I had so time consuming setting up this great project.
Do you might now anyone else i could send a message maybe?A remote session somehow?
Thanks for the effort anyway.

In case anyone else is experiencing the same issue, I figured this one out.
routeraddress was missing in .fogsettings

cd /opt/fog vim .fogsettings

enter router/default gateway IP between single quotes

routeraddress='192.168.1.1'

reboot server.

@Jim-Graczyk

The wiki on migration covers migrating a single FOG server using the only workable process, so I’ll leave that alone.

I think my issue with the entire “Server Migration” process is that it requires you take FOG down at the onset of the process - before you attempt to install FOG on the new server. This obviously stops all the PC IT maintenance processes FOG provides IT support, but also FOG’s benefits to the end users of the hosts, until the new server/system is back up and working.

I’ve used FOG on a fairly large scale - some instances have 10+ remote sites, each with its own FOG Storage Node. To say that shutting it down before starting migration is inconvenient to the business is an understatement. Storage node migration didn’t require that the storage node had use the same IP as the old storage node - so that helped.

I hope that my initial post to you comes up when other FOG users search “FOG Migration”, so they don’t waste the time I did trying to build a completely new FOG system, including storage nodes, to cut over to, only to find that you can image PCs and create new hosts, but the exiting host would not talk to the new server system - so all the existing host configuration is lost (a large chunk of work). Ironically, there are numerous FOG wikis that address most issues that I ran into - creating new certs, the ever-present Reset Encryption on the FOG Client, etc., but none mentioned that the CA of the old system HAD to be used in place of the new.

I’m glad there was some way forward without having to reconfigure everything manually, but like many things in FOG wikis, everything in them is true, but context and limitations are not defined at the beginning. Even the migration process link didn’t spell out requirements, nor include remote sites and storage nodes. It needs to spell out that harvesting the CA and certs and using the old server’s IP address are as important as the database, snapins, and images - and this is the ONLY way to migrate.

So - a suggestion to the great minds working on FOG:

Create a way to change the FOG Client CA in one step - delete old and replace new - from within the FOG Client. This could be something issued from the old FOG server, for security reasons. CA deletion should also be built into the FOG Client Installation MSI/EXE. I use FOG to build portable Windows images that are company and FOG server independent. The FOG client is installed at the initial boot and replaced in the image as FOG evolves.

If that capability could be added, migration would be possible such that the new system w database, snapins, images, host configs, could be build out with multi-storage nodes and multi-locations, side-by-side with the old FOG system, gated only by DHCP boot settings at each site (IP broadcast space).

Jim Graczyk

@bwilli78 my dell machine was wrongly identified as 32bit and sent bzimage32. You can: 1) update to dev-branch 1629 I should help. Or 2) send bzimage to 32bit machines. (Because they are wrongly identified).

This could be your issue. I don’t see FOG sending bzimage32 anyway. Just a gut feeling. May be wrong.

@RocksAndRolls I’m not sure how much additional help I can provide here but where it failing is at the end of the imaging process, the target system logs into the ftp server on the FOG server using the fogproject user account. That fogproject user MUST be able to rename the captured file in /images/dev from the mac address and the move the directory from /images/dev/<mac_address> to /images/<image_name>.

If you have verified you can log into the fog server via ftp as the fogproject user using the password saved in the fog ui then it has to be a permission issue on the /images directory.

The image capture process is

FOS Engine -> connects to /images/dev NFS share and creates a directory that matches it’s mac address
FOS Engine -> Uploads the disk connect as the root user (on the FOS Engine)
FOS Engine -> Connects to the FOG server as fogproject user and issues a mv command to move the directory from /images/dev/<mac_address> to /images/<image_name>
FOS Engine -> Logs out of ftp and completes the cleanup before reboot.

@fabritrento That’s not how this works. Just saying lol. 6.1.22 works fast for your situation, but that doesn’t mean there’s truly something wrong with the kernel for everybody. So when the next stable release comes out, you should remember to switch back to 6.1.22 and we’ll work to keep trying to update the kernels and hope that you’ll test them to see if it works for your situation so you don’t have to revert it to 6.1.22.